Drive (1997).
“That son of a bitch could eat flour and shit cupcakes.”
Directed by Steve Wang
Written by Scott Phillips
Starring Mark Dacascos, Kadeem Hardison, John Pyper-Ferguson, and Brittany Murphy
The Stage.
Toby, a cybernetically enhanced man who’s way more dangerous than his name lets on, teams up with an out of work musician as they’re hunted by hapless henchmen, a cyborg assassin, and a Kid Rock cosplayer.
The Review.
Drive’s story is about as deep as a 13-year-old’s secret journal, but it’s a lot of fun due to it’s relentless action scenes. Mark Dacascos plays Toby, a science experiment who’s been implanted with a ‘bio-engine’ which makes him faster and stronger than your average Joe. Dacascos is an accomplished martial artist, and his skills are on full display here, unless he’s falling or taking a hit, and then it clearly switches to a stunt double who has way more hair and is about a foot shorter. It’s hilariously obvious. Kadeem Hardison, aka Dwayne Wayne, plays Malik, the other half of this buddy duo. He has zero fighting skills and the movie would play out no differently without him. He’s basically here to make zany faces and spit one-liners that generally don’t land. The two work best together when there’s not much time to talk, and luckily the film moves along at a very brisk pace. One stand out scene has our two protagonists chained to together as Toby uses the hapless Malik as a weapon.
The action scenes are all pretty good and the hand-to-hand combat make exceptional use of the environment. Fights reminded me of low-budget Jackie Chan, which is definitely a compliment. I was surprised at how long some of the fight scenes went as Dacascos used anything and everything at his disposal to rid the world of faceless, mindless bad guys that must have been hired straight off of Craigslist. There are some explosions that really rock, especially one that sees an entire complex leveled.
The villains are all pretty inept, and it makes you wonder how they got hired in the first place. Aside from finding their targets, they’re not good for much else. Firing guns isn’t anyone’s strong suit in this movie, and that includes the heroes. Not one person on screen could hit a brick wall at five paces. They’re led by Vic Madison, an over-the-top caricature that looks like Kid Rock drove a motorcycle through a country western discount store and used whatever wardrobe stuck to him when he emerged on the other side. I like that he was continuously overmatched by the super soldier and never felt like he had the upper hand. The cyborg assassin only really shows up at the end of the film but you can tell the actor knows what he’s doing. One cool moment shows him flick a coin through someone’s neck. Unfortunately, the trickle of blood that rolls off of the quarter is really the only blood in the film, as the fight scenes are very PG-13. Even a scene featuring NPC’s carrying machetes that get turned on them is bloodless.
The movie is a lot of fun, but I do have two complaints. About halfway through, the two stop at a hotel run by a character named Deliverance Bodine, a name seemingly plucked from an online stupid character name generator, played by Brittany Murphy. This is two years removed from Clueless and I have to be honest, I don’t know what the fuck Murphy was doing in this role. Her character is old enough to run a hotel and feel like a love interest, but she acts like an eleven-year-old with a mental condition. As Dacascos rests to recharge, she sings and jumps on the bed like a fucking toddler trying to wake up their hung over parents and it was absolutely embarrassing.
The other complaint is the music in the film, which ranges from shitty, royalty free heavy-metal to hip-hop tracks found on the cutting room floor of the sitcom Living Single that aren’t good enough to make the background music in a Toejam and Earl video game. The movie could have felt a whole lot better without the goofy sounding music underlining every moment.
The End.
Overall, Drive was a good time. I think it would have been better if Malik was more than just a handcuff, Brittany Murphy’s character was just taken out completely, and the script had more bone-snapping and blood, but it’s still a pretty good time.
MVD did an excellent job with the Blu-ray, which features the Director’s Cut. It’s got over eight minutes of deleted scenes, a full commentary track, a long documentary, and the theatrical cut if you’re so inclined.
